What is a Torrent? How to use it and everything else

Downloading a large file from the internet is always a tough task, the first reason being the low internet speed and another being the slow speed from the source itself. The second reason is the one due to which many people prefer torrents above anything else.
Today I will tell you all you need to about torrent, including how to use it, which software to use and everything else.

What is a torrent and how it works

In layman’s language, torrent is a file which contains details about the file you want to download. You can think of it as a slip with address of the files you are looking for. Torrent are mostly used to download files over the internet. Majority of the files downloaded through torrent are illegal.

However, to say that torrent is an illegal thing to use is completely wrong. Torrent is simply a better way to share a file as it uses P2P technology to share files. In this technology, the users connect with each other and share their downloaded files over the internet instead of downloading the same from a single source leading to quicker download.

So, let me explain it with the help of a simple example, suppose A want 100 printouts of a photograph and decides to take it from B, then B will have to give each printout of the photograph one by one, this will take a large amount of time. Instead, if A collects 1 printout of the photgraph from 100 different people simultaneously, then it would take lesser amount of time.
I hope you have now understood how torrents work.

How to use torrent to download a file?

Firstly, you need to understand the fact that everything you need is not available through torrents. You will have to search for the torrent of the content/file you’re looking for.

To download files using torrent, you need to install a torrent downloader app on your device, the most famous and common ones are μTorrent, BitTorrent etc that are available on all major platforms such as Windows, MacOS, Android and Linux.

Note: Torrents are not allowed on iOS hence you will have to first jailbreak your device to use torrents.

Let’s go through the steps to download a file using a torrent:

• Step 1: Open any of the torrent indexing sites such as torrentz, you can also go to sites with torrent collections such as YTS if the above mentioned sites are not working.
• Step 2: Search for the required file, for example, movie name such as “Interstellar 2014”

  

  Click on the first result

• Step 3: Download the selected torrent file and open the file in the torrent downloader app (utorrent or Bittorrent) that you have downloaded

  

  Select the quality i.e. 720p or 1080p

  

  The download will start once you download and open the torrent file.

The download will start, you can now manage the file getting downloaded through the torrent downloader you have installed on your device.

Torrent -Common terms you must know

There are a few terms that you will come across while using torrents. Let me explain in details what each term stands for to understand torrents better.

• Seeders: Seeder simply refers to the users who share the file while downloading it. It is like uploading the file simultaneously while downloading even after the downloading it.
• Leechers: Leechers are anti-seeders. It refers to the users who download the file only and do not share it to use with others.
• Trackers: Trackers are what the name suggests, it refers to servers that find peers that will help in downloading the file.
• Peers: Peers are similar to seeders but you can refer to them as seeders who are sharing the file at the same time you are downloading it.

Torrent related FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

Is torrenting illegal in India?

Torrenting is not illegal, downloading some file through torrent is, you need to read this para completely to understand what I mean. See, torrenting is just a way to share files through P2P technology, there’s nothing illegal in it. However, when you download/share pirated content through torrent then, it becomes illegal. One may argue that only pirated content is available on torrent, this is a totally wrong argument. You can easily find free software with torrents, for instance, Libre Office, a very popular alternative to Microsoft Office which is free, if you go to it’s official website, you will see that it has an option to download the program through torrent. I guess it is a good-enough proof to tell you that torrents are legal.

How to download movies from utorrent in mobile?

Well, downloading files through utorrent is very easy on a smartphone. You need to do the steps as mentioned below:

• Step1: Download a torrent search and torrent downloader app from Play Store, say, TorrMonk for torrent search and utorrent for downloading torrents.
• Step 2: Open the TorrMonk app, search for the torrent file.
  
• Step 3: Click on the torrent with the highest number of seeders (mostly available at the top).
  
• Step 4: Click on 'Download file' option, it will open the utorrent app where the download will start
  

The file will be keep downloading in the background in uTorrent app, once the file has been downloaded completely, you can exit the utorrent app.

Clicking on download button the torrent download link opens a new tab with an ad, how to download the torrent?

This is one of the ugly side of using torrents. Almost every torrent search site provide ads on the download button which often results in the user getting annoyed and leaving the site altogether.

In order to deal with it, you will have to do the following:

• Step 1: Keep on clicking the download button, this will open many ads
• Step 2: Whenever an ad opens, close it’s window/tab
• Step 3: Repeat the above two steps and keep on clicking the download button till the download starts

It may take from as low as 2 to 5 attempts but eventually, the ad will go away and torrent will be downloaded.

Do note that the steps above are for Android users only as torrent apps are not available on iOS as also mentioned above in this article. 

Watch this small video for the steps mentioned above if you are more of a viewer than a reader.

Concluding words

So, this was all you need to know about torrents. I have tried to discuss all the basic things that you need to know. In case you still have any doubt then you can write it in the comment section below.

We talked about what torrents are, how do they work, some common terms related to it, how to use it and everything else.

I personally use torrent on a laptop as I enjoy watching movies on a large screen rather than a smaller one. However, if you have a smartphone with a better display which is a common thing as I discussed in this article, then you can enjoy more as nowadays, displays of a mid-range smartphone is way better than a laptop’s.

I hope you liked the article, share it with every person who needs to know about this.

Also Read: How to Watch free Movies and TV-Shows on Android and iOS